Once it gets hot, the piragua carts come out in NYC. We have a big Latin population, so this is a lovely crossover. The piragua man shaves down a big block of ice, puts the ice in a cup and you choose which yummy flavoring you want poured over the ice. I love black cherry, mango, pineapple.

Here's a pic of a piragua cart:
http://www.east-harlem.com/images/icycart.jpg

Do you have this in your nabe?

One of my fondest memories of NYC is a humid, hot day and going to the piragua cart in East Harlem and ordering a piraqua. the sound of the ice being shaved and being flecked with bits of shaved ice and watching the paper cone being stuffed with the shaved ice and turning colors depending on your flavor preference ( mine was always Grape) and then there were cocitos, coconut cream ice confections made with coconut cream and condensed milk made up and frozen at home and then sold from a frozen cart on the street, they are served in those small fluted dentists' cup. wonderful....
These treats made a summer day a bit more bearable. So when I moved down to New Orleans, I thought that I would miss this wonderful taste treat. Not to worry, they are called Snowballs down here and they even have sugar free ones. They are made by ice shaving machines are set up in stores or storefronts and are very, very popular. There are hundreds of flavors indluding Dragon's Blood, Tangerine Creme, blueberry and the list goes on and on....

Yes, I remember these a sno-cones when I was little. We even had a little machine that would shave ice and then you could add your own flavors.

Tommorow I'm going to make paletas with Mango and cream. Does anyone else do this & can you buy them commercially in your city?

A cute side note: the kids in our neighborhood but a big sign on the corner that said "Ice cream man, turn here". I had to laugh at that...I guess somethings never change.

We had snowcones as a kid, usually at the fair or something like that. I've never seen a piragua cart. Sounds delish and refreshing!

'fanatic, what are "paletas?"

I have never seen a piragua cart in my life. Sounds delish. Do you think he could get that cart over to Australia????